Sand Racing Report 12^th July 2014

After a 6 week break local racing returned to the sands of Vazon with a positive outlook for the car classes as 11 assorted cars were down on the beach, though 2 never completed a full race & another only finished the first one. This did not mean there was no close racing as the 2 white grasstrack racing cars of Gary Duquemin& Jack Sanders were in close combat for at least 3 of the races with the larger engine car of Jack just piping Gary to the post on the final lap, Clint Blondel held station in 3^rd spot having an excellent view of the battle unfolding in front ofhim whilst newcomer Paul Penney was getting quicker as he masters the techniques of racing these sort of cars. The saloons were no less exciting with the continuing battle in the production class between Wayne Martel & Eric Trump but they will have to watch out as the class has doubled in size with the addition of Jonathan Robilliard, after a 15year break from racing in a Ford Escort &hillclimber Neil Bourgaize making his debut in a Mazda 1500 not that far behind. Eric again proved master of the handicap system by just piping scratch man Jack Sanders to the line after 10 laps of racing, may have been all different if Jack had his fuel pumps running correctly.

Sliders were down to just 6 riders with Rob Teed gaining the most wins, scratch race 1, championship race 2 & taking the Thoumine Handicap bike trophy race. George Vandertang with his unusual riding style managed to take wins for the Committee Cup & 2^nd scratch race whilst Anthony Bougourd only managed to complete championship race 1 in the leading place before bike problems put him out for the rest for the afternoon. Old stalwarts Dave Cleal& Colin Teed picked up valuable championship& committee cup points as did the fastest milkman in Guernsey Eddie Goracy.

MX class had a field of 10 riders with Tony Duquemin, Billy Russell & Frankie Brouard battling it out for the top 3 places, whilst the mid field battle was between Matt & Paul Le Gallez& Daniel & Nathan Pinchemian. The 3 Kawasaki mounted riders brought up the rear of the field & whilst at the moment Martin Symoms has the upper hand he will soon be looking over his shoulder as Paul Le Messurier certainly showed more speed at his second meeting whilst twin brother Ian seems to struggle with only having 2 wheels under him.

Good turnout of 6 riders in the Intermediate class with the Rive twins out on their sliders, Billy even joining the senior riders for the last scratch race & showed he would be a contender in that class as it was only Rob & George in front of him as he came in 3^rd ahead of Colin & Eddie. Josh Lambourne& George Symons came out on top on the Motocross style bikes till George had problems & had to motor around to pick up valuable points. Rhys Melass in his 1^st year in this class is showing improved speed whist Jarod Carrington had to take the unusual step of moving back to a cadet bike which looked way too small for him as his usual bike hit problems. Only 2 cadets racing so Dan came away with 5 wins though for 2 races he had no completion as by then Kierran Bennett had retired with engine problems.

Paul Stanford.